24.02.2026 Statement for Arria Meeting in connection with Red Hand Day 2026

Checked Against Delivery

Thank you, Chair,

Let me also thank the briefers and commend Panama, and co-sponsors Greece, Liberia, Austria, Japan and Uruguay, for organising today’s meeting.

Chair,

Every person who has benefited from an education knows its transformative power. This is true in Denmark, in Panama, here in New York, and across the world. But as we have heard today, it is especially true in conflict and post-conflict situations.

The evidence is clear, the lived experience of children is clear – education saves lives, it gives hope, it transforms nations, and it must be protected from attack, the international legal framework is clear on this. Yet, attacks against schools are increasing whilst education and protection services are underfinanced.

Against this backdrop, the international community, including the Security Council, must shoulder its responsibility. We should support the mandates and ensure the funding necessary to enable critical programming.

We must, collectively ensure that parties to conflict uphold international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Parties to conflict must commit to specific, structured steps to end and prevent grave violations against children and uphold accountability.

Chair,

We know that improvements in programming and increased evidence and data can help to reach these goals. But as long as international law is actively undermined and the plight of children ignored, attacks against schools will persist and children will continue to suffer unspeakable horrors.

For our part, Denmark will continue to stand up for international law. We will work to uphold existing normative and legal standards designed to protect children and ensure their right to education. We will work to equip the UN and partners with the necessary instruments to provide universal child protection and education.

In closing, Chair,

As we mark this Red Hand Day, let us not only reflect, but recommit. Recommit to the children in Haiti who should be able to enjoy a safe learning environment without fear of being recruited by gangs. To the children in Sudan who are attacked, starved, and displaced. And to the children in Ukraine, who must be free from indoctrination and militarisation by Russia in the context Russia’s full-scale invasion. An invasion that marks four long years to this date.

Denmark stands ready to work with all partners to these ends.

I thank you.